"And you took him to my study?" said the Doctor almost fiercely.

"I beg your pardon, Doctor," said the Colonel stiffly.

"I beg yours, Colonel Severn, for the interruption."

"Now then, my man," continued the Colonel; "you took this visitor, this Professor Barclay--"

There was a low, indignant murmur here, and the Colonel looked round sharply.

"You took this Professor Barclay into your master's study, I understand, and gave him pens, ink, and paper, and left him to write the letter?"

"No, sir, that I didn't," said Wrench, grinning with triumph. "I have been a servant too many years, sir, to go and do a thing like that.

What, take him into master's room, where he keeps his cash-box and cheque-book in the little iron safe in the closet! And there's the presentation clock on the chimney-piece, and his old gold watch that he never wears in the table-drawer! No, sir. That gentleman was master's friend to some extent; but he was a stranger to me, and if he'd been a royal duke I shouldn't have done it."

"Then, what did you do?" said the Colonel.

"Took him into the theaytre lecture-room, sir, where there's little tables, and the young gentlemen writes out their exercises. That's what I did, sir," said Wrench triumphantly; and he looked hard at his master, who sat shaking his head at him solemnly.--"What! Wasn't that right, sir?" cried Wrench.

"Oh Wrench, Wrench, Wrench!" said the Doctor. "And you left him there, with the staircase close at hand leading right up to the corridor and the young gentlemen's dormitories?"

Wrench's jaw dropped, and one hand went slowly up to the back of his head and began to scratch.

"Well," continued the Colonel; "and how long did this gentleman stay?"

"I don't know, sir. Not half an hour--I'd swear to that. I gave him long enough to write a letter, and then I come back to see if he was ready to go."

"Let me protest," cried Morris indignantly. "No such letter was written for or delivered to me; that I declare."

"Pray be calm, sir," said the Colonel judicially. "You can ask this man any questions when I have done with him.--Now, my man, go on. Did you find this gentleman where you left him?"

"Yes, sir."

"And he gave you a letter to deliver to Mr Morris?"

"No, sir," cried Wrench sharply. "I'd forgotten all about it till you began arxing me questions like this. When I come in he got up in a disappointed sort of way and began tearing up the letter he had written quite small, and throwing it into the waste-paper basket. `It's no use, my lad,' he said. `I can't say in a letter one-hundredth part'--I ain't sure, sir, he didn't say a thousandth-part--`of what I want to tell Mr Morris. I'll stay in the town to-night, and come and see Mr Morris in the morning.'"

"And did he come and see Mr Morris in the morning?"

Morris half-rose in his chair, but sat down again.

"No, sir; and I haven't seen him from that day to this, though I had often seen them together before."

"That will do, my man," said the Colonel quietly.--"Now, Mr Morris; you wish to ask this man some questions?"

"Yes, sir," cried Morris springing up.--"Now, Wrench, did you ever tell me that Professor Barclay called when I was absent?"

"No, sir. I suppose it was the cricket-match put it all out of my head."

"Bah!" cried Morris.

"And then, you see, sir, I have so many things to think of about my work and the young gentlemen that I haven't got room to remember everything; and I always have to tick things off."

"Tick things off? What do you mean by that?" cried Morris.

"Well, sir, there's things to do and there's things that's done; things I have got to remember, and things I haven't. The Professor said that he'd come and see you, so that was his job and not mine; and if you'll believe me, gentlemen all, I never remembered about his coming until Colonel Severn here asked me about any one coming and wanting to write a letter."

"I believe you," said the Colonel quietly, as if speaking to himself; but it was sufficiently loud for Morris to hear, and he turned upon the speaker fiercely.

"I protest, sir," he cried indignantly, "partly against my name being dragged into this despicable theft, and partly on behalf of my friend Professor Barclay, a scholar, a gentleman, and a professor of Sanskrit and other Eastern languages; a gentleman, sir, though a poor and needy gentleman upon whom the world had frowned, but whom I considered it an honour and a privilege to know, as I should any gentleman whom I was introduced to by my revered princ.i.p.al the Doctor. I cannot sit still and hear such a man even suspected of being dishonest; and I beg you, sir, and the Doctor will go on with this investigation so as to prove to the world that Professor Barclay was a gentleman indeed."

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

THE COLONEL OPENS FOLK'S EYES.

Morris sat down, panting, and began wiping the perspiration from his forehead. He looked very much agitated, and then he smiled with satisfaction, for Singh sprang up and cried, "Mr Morris is quite right, guardian. The Professor was a scholar and a gentleman, whom I knew too."

"Indeed!" said the Colonel.

"Yes, sir. He spoke Hindustani very well for an Englishman. Why, you saw him, sir!"

"I?" said the Colonel sharply. "Yes, sir; that night we were dining with you at your hotel."

"The Colonel forgets," said Morris quickly. "He was with me in the hall, sir, and wanted to be introduced to you."

"Oh," said the Colonel; "that man? No, I don't forget. I remember perfectly well."

"And, guardian, he took such an interest in my belt!"

"Indeed!" said the Colonel quietly.

"Yes, sir, when I showed it to him. He asked to see it, you know, when I told him about the Sanskrit letters."

"Naturally, as a Sanskrit scholar," said the Colonel drily. "Sit down, my boy.--Doctor, I am very glad you sent for me, and that I am able to clear up this miserable little mystery. You knew this Professor Barclay?"

"Only as coming to me with testimonials to prove that he had been one of the professors at Stillham College."

"Yes; and his name?"

"Barclay--Professor Barclay, Professor of Sanskrit and Hindustani. He applied for an engagement here."

"Humph! All wrong," said the Colonel. "I thought I knew his face when he tried to thrust himself upon me in the hotel; and I was right. I did know it, though thirty years had elapsed since we last met. A man who had been out in Calcutta and picked up a little Sanskrit and a pretty good smattering of Hindustani--a man who can chatter a bit in a foreign tongue always seems a big scholar to one who can't. This fellow, on the strength of his acquirements, came back to England and obtained an appointment near London where military cadets were in training for the Honourable East India Company's Service. I was there--not Stillham, but Barnis...o...b..; name not Barclay, but Roberts. He was kicked out, Doctor, for blackmailing the students. He was not much more than a boy himself in those days."

"Colonel," cried the Doctor indignantly, "are you prepared to say you are sure, and that this is a fact?"

"Yes," said the Colonel coolly. "He blackmailed me."